1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for creating a three-dimensional model of a wiring pattern on a printed board based on printed-board information created by an electrical computer-aided design (CAD), as a wiring model for a mechanical CAD.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, electrical designing with an electrical CAD and mechanical designing with a mechanical CAD has been performed in parallel in designing of the information processing devices. The electrical designing includes designing of a circuit on a printed board, and the mechanical designing includes designing of a shape of a housing and a layout of components.
It is possible to perform the electric designing and the mechanical designing in parallel. However, a shape of a housing, for example, can put a restriction on a shape or layout of an electrical component. Therefore, information on a design with regard to the electrical designing and the mechanical design is repeatedly exchanged, as the design has progressed. To address the needs, it has been developed a system that aids the electrical CAD and the mechanical CAD to interlock with a capability of facilitating an exchange of information required in the electrical designing and the mechanical designing.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-353341 describes a three-dimensional-model creating device that creates information representing a three-dimensional model including wires and components on the printed board, in a form that each of the wires is modeled independently. Based on the information, an mechanical-CAD can conduct an analysis of the wiring pattern to avoid troubles such as a short circuit expected to be happened at installation of the components, in addition to an analysis of interference between the components. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-202401 describes a three-dimensional-shape data-system that creates a detailed three-dimensional model by integrating a shape of the wiring pattern with shapes of vias and lands.
However, to conduct a layout analysis of the components with the mechanical-CAD, the three-dimensional model including the components and the wiring patterns on the printed board is insufficient. To find such a layout error in which a hole is covered by a component, a three-dimensional model additionally including holes on the printed board is required.
In addition, when creating the three-dimensional model of the wiring pattern, if each of the wired lines is modeled independently, the volume of data of the three-dimensional model becomes so large that a processing speed of the mechanical-CAD decreases.